ArchiveFebruary 2015

The Bombay High Court has recently given an important judgment in Harkirat Singh v Rabobank. It has revisited the law on the implied exclusion of Part I of the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, which we have considered this on a number of occasions on this Blog. The point remains of great practical importance even though Bhatia International has been overruled because it is a live...

[The following post is contributed by Prachi Narayan of Vinod Kothari & Company. She can be contacted at [email protected]] The Supreme Court in its judgment dated January 28, 2015 in Keshavlal Khemchand & Sons Pvt Ltd & Ors v. Union of India disposed off seventy petitions challenging the validity of the amended definition of Non Performing Asset (“NPA”) provided under section...

The Finance Minister today announced India’s Budget 2015-2016. The Budget documents, including his speech are available here. It is significant that this Budget comes during a period of upturn in the economy after a few preceding years of perceived gloom and doom, especially from the perspective of foreign investors. Other features attributable to the current macroeconomic environment include...

[The following post is contributed by Nivedita Shankar, who is a Senior Associate at Vinod Kothari & Company. She can be contacted at [email protected]] The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on January 7, 2015[1] has modified the Master Circular on Wilful Defaulters (Master Circular) with a view to usher in greater transparency and accountability in the process for identification of wilful...

Readers will recall the debates in the lead up to the Companies Act, 2013 as to whether the provisions relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ought to be mandatory or voluntary. Finally, a compromise position was arrived at that largely amounts to a “comply-or-explain” approach. Since the CSR provision (section 135) was brought into effect from April 1, 2014, its impact (particularly...

The state of bankruptcy law in India continues to leave much to be desired, and adds to the difficulties in doing business in the country. Several previous efforts have been undertaken towards reforms, but they have either been introduced on a piecemeal basis or have not entirely been successful. With this in mind, the Government had last year appointed the Bankruptcy Law Reform Committee (BLRC)...

[The following guest post is contributed by Neha Somani of Vinod Kothari Consultants Pvt. Ltd. The author can be contacted at [email protected]] Truth-in-lending laws, found in many countries world-over, ensure that lenders make a truthful disclosure of their rates of interest, and do not seek to attract borrowers with misleading rates of interest. Truthful disclosure of rates of...

The last few weeks have witnessed some activity from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is indicative of a more liberalized approach towards the pricing at which foreign investors are able to sell their shares upon exercise of options (such as put options) made available to them under contractual documentation. Most of the indications came from the RBI in relation to a specific case involving...

The latest issue of the Economist carries two pieces (here and here) arguing about the importance of shareholder activism as a means to enhance the management and governance of companies. The magazine appears to extol the virtues of activism in the current economic environment, although some might dispute whether activist investors have had as much of a positive role to play in corporate...

It was widely reported last week that Companies House in the UK had been ordered to pay damages of £8.8 million for making a spelling mistake. The case, of course rather more complex than that, is Sebry v Companies House and raised an important question of law: is the Registrar of Companies liable for loss caused by negligent entries made in the course of discharging his statutory obligations...

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